Cultures of water content

Water over rocks
Last nite I was reflecting on my life -- trying to see which experiences or people or WHAT has shaped my inherent beliefs around diversity, respect, what is life-affirming and right... and again the image of how rocks at the bottom of the river are slowly smoothed and shaped by the water that flows over them... is how I believe I have been shaped and 'born'... not through a few, intense incidents (not the refiner's fire) but through the overall pattern and flow of life... the values my parents lived their lives by and instilled in us kids, the organisations I was in, the community I was a part of... all of these the rippling water that slowly but powerfully made me who I am. (Brenda, The Netherlands)

Gazing down the river Amstel at the end of our street always makes me dreamy and philosophical as I watch the ducks and seagulls, gently splashing rowers, and tourboats sliding by. It brings me back to myself, so that I can reflect on my day. (Odilia, The Netherlands)

Coming from Australia, I have grown up surrounded by water, water sports and water lifestyle. Watching the waves at the beach is just as much apart of my life as is showering every day - water is all around me yet I never spend much time thinking on the subject. What really has pushed me to write is an occurrence that happens at least once every two weeks here in Paris. In front of our office we have a huge window, much like a shop/store front, and through it we look directly out at the street. In the gutter, to much dismay, at least once every two weeks the gutter is flooded with a torrent of water that flows from a pipe at the end of the street for no particular reason. I am fairly certain this is drinking water. No one can explain it to me why this happens and it seems such a waste. At first, this may have seemed trivial to me, but to read postings like Jesse's and to be reminded of what is happening outside of my little box, this waste in front of my window has a lot more effect on me. (Brett, Australian in France)

In Prague, since it is the year of water, there is an exhibition called Water and Life running in the national museum and covers all aspects that include water. Sea, lakes, waterfalls, glaciers, organisms living in the water, el nino, daily life and water, pollution, hydroelectricity ... simply everything you can think of where water has its role. And I was really impressed and very interested. And quite scared seeing what is happening around me… In Czech Republic, we had always sufficient supply of water and I was wondering that not many people will really give water the respect as long as it will be running from the tap every time they turn it on. But altogether I think my generation was brought up in the respect of water and I would never waste in on purpose…. On the other hand Iceland is quite different in this point. Iceland is very rich country where water is concerned. And that is why I think it does not get the respect it deserves. You get cold and hot water in all possible or impossible places around the whole country. To give you the picture, Iceland has 280 thousand of people and 180 thousand live in the capital. The second largest city has around 15 thousand people and the middle of country is totally uninhabited, but if you go camping around there, you just get the water. There are hotsprings, rivers, lakes, glaciers, you have swimming pools everywhere around the country. So I do not really think that here the people see the lack of it... at least from what I had a chance to notice in their behaviour towards it. I see people in Czech much more value the water when they are in their summer cottages because then they usually have to use their own wells with possibly not that much water in it… (Martina, a Czech in Iceland)

You know, in Rhodes, water from our roof terrace drains into the gutter in the street but because shops are open till 10 or 11pm they don’t like you using water. The gutters run down the middle of the road because in medieval times the drainage ran down the middle and it hasn’t been developed since then, and the grandmother downstairs runs up to admonish us…Sometimes we just go out and when we come back at 2am then water the plants! Water “rules”… (Alan, a Brit in Rhodes, Greece)

My grandparents grew up and lived in Maritsa village, 16 kilometres away from the coast, but in those days it was a long way and so the sea was not a part of their lives. I remember my grandmother, in later years, would only put her feet into the sea as water was something she was not familiar with. They used the stream for water, the stream near our village is still there but there is really not much water in it today. The villagers now buy water from the municipality. During the Italian occupation they installed much water infrastructure – canals, pipes, fountains. It was part of life on Sundays, the small canals would run to make water available for the whole village – people would take what they needed to use. This practice stopped as it became more expensive (late 1970s). (Maria, Greece)

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